As Mortimer and Nick walked their way around the city to find a Starbucks, a random Trainer in the street called Mortimer out. The guy pointedly ignored Nick, apparently recognizing that he was one of the gym leaders. The Trainer approached with a cocky swagger, saying that they hadn't challenged the gym yet, but they just knew it was going to be a cakewalk.

Both Cairne and the Mefflora immediately charged at each other, Mortimer's Acafia striking first. Cairne's horn threw the Aroma pokemon to the ground harshly, the attack hitting a weak spot right off the bat. The grass and fairy type quickly sprang back up despite that and then jumped higher, coming down on the green calf's head with a few quick kicks. Cairne shook the attack off easily as his opponent flipped away from his head and the two combatants stared at each other, the Mefflora already out of breath and weakened.

Not able to dodge out of the way fast enough, the grass and fairy type was struck dead-on by Cairne's horn again and was flung back to land close her Trainer's feet. The random Trainer gave a slight growl, but encouraged his Mefflora to try one more time. Struggling to her feet, the Aroma pokemon jumped on top of Cairne's head again, but there wasn't very much she could do.

One more quick and cleanly given Horn Attack did indeed finish the Mefflora off, as she had no more strength to pull herself up from the ground after the next hit. Her Trainer gave a small sigh and recalled the little Aroma pokemon and sent out his next pokemon -- one that Mortimer had already seen before.

Cairne needed to be sent back, for the Acafia was visibly having a feeling of nausea. Mortimer had no idea what was the cause of it, though he would find out later. He withdrew Cairne, sending out his Scraggy to deal with the Snorunt present.

"Go, Halduron!"

Mortimer still did not really have a whole lot of emotional energy. Feeling sadness from earlier did that to him a lot, and while he was sad about Professor Gadari likely passing away before Championship status was attained, he recognized that he could still be a good successor to his mentor.

"Alright, Halduron! Let's bust this Snorunt wide open with a Low Kick!"

Perhaps it was the cooled wind that the Snow Hat pokemon sent in Mortimer's direction that made his Acafia feel ill, but since Cairne was no longer on the field, it didn't really matter. Halduron weathered the blast perfectly fine and the Snorunt flushed and puffed her cheeks out at the fighting and dark type in defiance. The Scraggy's muscles had frozen just a little bit from her attack, however, slowing him down as he tried to warm them back up. He was still able to perform his drop kick very well, despite that.

The random Trainer called out for Snorunt to use a different attack -- one that was still cold (and maybe even colder) but instead of just wind in it, it was wind and snow! The flurry caused some ice to coat the surrounding area, but as soon as the Snow Hat pokemon stopped to take a breather, it disappeared. Despite the extra spaz in the attack, it seemed to cause Halduron less discomfort than the other attack. The Scraggy easily closed the distance between him and his opponent, kicking out with a short leg, and knocked the ice type onto the ground again. The Snow Hat pokemon very slowly righted herself, clearly outmatched and exhausted.

Powder Snow was a fun move to watch visually. It was too bad the snow did not last, however. Low Kick still hit Snorunt pretty hard, which was more than enough for Mortimer to ask his Scraggy to finish this battle off.

The random Trainer seemed to be fairly disgruntled at the lackluster strength of the Powder Snow attack, and so he went back to the first attack, hoping for better results. By the time the Snow Hat pokemon and the Scraggy had exchanged attacks once more, the other Trainer was looking at Mortimer nervously, clearly thinking that he had made a mistake in challenging someone who appeared to be good buddies with the gym leaders -- his cocky swagger attitude was gone.

Halduron seemed to be in a good mood. Though, it was clear this battle was particularly one-sided. Mortimer wondered if Cairne wasn't feeling well, and sought to maybe take the starter Pokemon to a Pokemon Centre in the hopes of seeing what was up. Presumably, Cairne was close to evolving. However, Mortimer did not have any immediate way of knowing that.

"Halduron, use Swagger!"

Halduron seemed like the sort of Pokemon who could pull the move off. Mortimer just took a guess, not knowing what to do against a Mareep with any of his Pokemon.

Halduron perked up at the sound of Mortimer calling for him to use his newest move, and a devilish grin found its way onto his face. The Scraggy straightened up and literally swaggered toward the electric typed pokemon that had replaced the Snorunt. The dark and fighting type enacted a few more movements -- all the while making the Mareep's gaze follow him -- until the woolly creature was quite irritated, but then the Wool pokemon got himself totally confused. Wait, what? What was he doing? Oh, yes; he was supposed to shock the other pokemon..... but where was he? The electric typed sheep managed to let loose a shock, but it zipped around in a lazy arc and got him on the hoof instead, making him trip and fall in a heap on the ground.

Shaking himself out of his swagger-attitude Halduron immediately dropped to the ground and slid toward his opponent as Mareep finally got back up on his feet. The electric sheep's balance was thrown out the window as the Scraggy kicked out with his leg, causing the Wool pokemon to bleat and fall face-first into the dirt. As an automatic response, the Mareep shot off another electrical charge, this one actually hitting Halduron as he withdrew from the fluffy pile. It was a mild shock, and didn't seem to have left any residual electricity.